TED Fellow Candy Chang creates art installations that are interactive, in a chalk and marker sense of the word.

In this talk given at TEDGlobal 2012, Candy gave an emotional glimpse at the installation “Before I Die I Want To _______,” which she created last year in her neighborhood in New Orleans. Inspired by the death of a dear friend, Candy turned an abandoned home into a giant chalkboard where her neighbors could pick up a piece of chalk and fill in the sentence any way they pleased. A few of their answers: “Before I die I want to be on Broadway.” “Before I die I want to find love.” “Before I die I want to hug a sloth.” “Before I die I want to be completely myself.”

“This neglected space became a constructive one,” says Candy in her moving talk. “It’s about knowing you’re not alone, it’s…